Film and Director Research: Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT
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Independent Research Project
The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 comedy film starring Ralph Fiennes as Monsier Gustave H, the famed owner of an aging premier hotel and also the mentor of the self-starting lobby boy Zero (played by Tony Revolori). The film, which was written and directed by Wes Anderson received critical acclaim for its outlandish humor and the use of “ornate visual environments to explore deeply emotional ideas” (Rotten Tomatoes, 2012). The movie centers around the exploits of Gustave, who started as a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest Hotel (a popular ski resort). Gustave rose through the ranks by seducing old, wealthy, and lonely guests, including the dowager Madame D, whom he services for 20 years before her mysterious death. When Gustave is bequeathed a renaissance painting by the elderly woman, he becomes a person of interest in her murder. The film follows the intrigues of Gustave and his loyal aide Zero as they contend with Madame D.’s son and Zubrowkan troops. This essay will analyze the use of color in the film as a visual symbol and how it advances the fairy-tale style approach of director Wes Anderson.
Wes Anderson’s films are known for their fairy-tale ambiance and ability to convey a feeling of coziness that is outside the confines of reality. Most of the characters in his films exist within the realm of possibility but on a grander scale than reality would allow. Wes Anderson’s characters live in a world that is “not unlike our own, but intriguingly askew – as the element of the fairy tale” (Friedman, 2014). Although the typical rules that define reality exist in Wes Anderson’s films, his characters have more freedom to bend them than in reality. The fairy tale created by the director is believable but is not consistent with reality (Li, 2021). The director allows the fairy-tale world he has created to move according to its own motion, a feature that is evident in his 2014 film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. One of the reasons the film is engaging is because it forces viewers to confront deep emotional ideas in a fairy-tale environment where “action is perpetual and transitions are seamless” (Friedman, 2014). Wes Anderson does not spare any effort in creating a vintage European universe in the imaginary Republic of Zubrowka filled with “Tymoshenko-style hair braids, twine-tied pastry boxes and perfume bottles with squeeze bulbs” (Friedman, 2014). Wes Anderson actualizes this fairy-tale universe through intense visual effects.
Production designers must consider the balance of visual weight in creating a stable environment: “Production design is a delicate piece of the puzzle, for visual aspects are the most significant in creating film perception and comprehension among audiences” (Vreeland, 2015). Visual effects help sell Wes Anderson’s fairy-tale world in the The Grand Budapest Hotel in a convincing manner. The ability of the director to manipulate the film’s perceived reality and win audiences’ hearts and m...